But mention tweed to guitarists, and they automatically think of an iconic era of Fender amps.

Truth be told, Leo Fender never intended for his amps to get such an overdriven sound. He much preferred the clean twang of country and Hawaiian lap steels. But guys like Neil Young, Joe Walsh, Eric Clapton and Billy Gibbons had other plans: Crank these low-watt wonders wide open!

The Tweed Tone Distortion is a pedal that's hand-built in the US by Vick Audio. The goal is to give you a compressed, "overworked-amp" distortion sound at any volume — in pedal form.

The two knobs on this pedal are Drive and Volume. Cool features include Neutrik jacks, a Boss-style power jack (The pedal does not take a battery) and a 3PDT True Bypass switch. All of this fits into a compact box that's slightly larger than 2-by-4 inches and goes for a current street price of $69.

Two things really stood out to me while demoing the Tweed Tone Distortion: first, there's the sensitivity of the pedal to the dynamics of my playing; second, I noticed how well it worked with my other pedals.

In Clip 1 below, listen to how the more I dig into my rhythm playing, the more the pedal compresses. In Clip 2, you can hear the lead tone by itself, followed by a few licks with a touch of delay and wah.

You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.